First-party vs third-party data: who’s last to the party?

First-party vs third-party data: who’s last to the party?

Umbel won’t stop talking about data, and we’re not alone. Whether your thing is data visualization, big data, or AI, you’re not going to stop hearing about data any time soon. But don’t let all the noise overpower one clear fact: all data is not made equal.

For marketers, salespeople, and others who depend on audience data, the biggest distinction comes in first-party, second-party, and third-party data. Third-party data has come up in recent articles about the “death of X.” Sometimes that X is ad exchanges, sometimes it’s cookies, and then other times it’s the business of ad tech entirely. But a lot of marketers still don’t have a firm grasp of the different types of audience data other than third-party may not be as good as the others. So how about we unpack first-, second-, and third-party data?

Two-thirds (or more) of marketers believe that first-party data provides the best path to truly understanding their customers and overall better marketing performance. So, what is it? First-party data is information you own, collected directly from the customer by you.

Because it’s information that you own, you don’t have to pay anything beyond the cost of acquiring the data in the first place. Some sources of first-party data include:

Why is first-party data a big deal? On their own, any of those sources are great data points. If you’re able to combine that data in an actionable way, though, collecting first-party data delivers amazing results for your brand and for your fan. You know nearly every time how someone is interacting with your brand: you can answer what channels they prefer, what they don’t, where they spend their time, and what of your messaging is working and what isn’t.

Let’s take a hockey fan, for example. Your first interaction could be they sign up for your team’s newsletter. You know their email, their first name, and then where on your website they went. From your ticketing provider, you know they bought tickets to an upcoming game. At that game, they engage with an unlock code that tells you they went to a concession stand on the third floor. From there, you get brands they’re interested in from social authentication including the visiting team, which is from their hometown. You know you can then target them for ticketing campaigns for future visits from that team, and what specific messaging they respond to.

What you have to keep in mind is that the responsibility is on you for both the quantity and the quality of that data. You have total control, which means you can improve how data is collected, and make sure that you bring all of your data together in a meaningful and actionable way.

Cookies are small files stored on your computer or phone that tell you if a user has been on a particular website. When a user visits a website, cookies are downloaded onto your computer and then retrieved by the website for each new page you visit (although if the user does several things on one page, that can trigger several upload events) . You can then serve those users content based on where they’ve visited or keep them logged in.

Cookies can be either first-party, second-party or third-party data. A first-party example would be when you go look at tickets for a specific game on a team’s website, and then next time you visit the site, those same tickets are suggested for you. Or if you’re checking the stats of a specific player, that player is featured on the team’s homepage the next time you visit.

The first problem with cookies, whether they’re first-party or not, is actually proving that a cookie is you.

Share it:
Share it:

[Social9_Share class=”s9-widget-wrapper”]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

You Might Be Interested In

Software engineering estimates are garbage

19 Jun, 2022

That’s not because companies are using the wrong methods or tools. Work-breakdown structure or analogy-based? Mechanical or judgmental combination? Function, …

Read more

The Rising Demand of AI Experts

1 Sep, 2017

AI is a new scientific infrastructure for research and learning that professionals will need to embrace and lead, failing which, …

Read more

Building Resilient Data Multiclouds

9 Oct, 2018

Resilience is risk mitigation that is engineered into your IT infrastructure. It’s the confidence that your infrastructure won’t fail you, …

Read more

Do You Want to Share Your Story?

Bring your insights on Data, Visualization, Innovation or Business Agility to our community. Let them learn from your experience.

Get the 3 STEPS

To Drive Analytics Adoption
And manage change

3-steps-to-drive-analytics-adoption

Get Access to Event Discounts

Switch your 7wData account from Subscriber to Event Discount Member by clicking the button below and get access to event discounts. Learn & Grow together with us in a more profitable way!

Get Access to Event Discounts

Create a 7wData account and get access to event discounts. Learn & Grow together with us in a more profitable way!

Don't miss Out!

Stay in touch and receive in depth articles, guides, news & commentary of all things data.